Patches for singleplayer?

Mr.Wr0ng

As I'm not interrested in the multiplayer part of the game, I'm wondering if the patches which are released are worth downloading?

I have read some mixed opinions on them, some stating that they broke a few missions and downgraded graphics, while some stating that they improved vehicle collision.

And some others stating that they changed nothing at all.

I've read through the patch notes on the Rockstar Newswire, but it wasn't really informative. The only thing I found that seemed noteworthy was

Fixes for several map escape and collision issues along with other various bug fixes

, but I've no idea if "collision issues" actually mean improving vehicle collisions or just fixing some random spots that drop you in blue hell.

That being said, all the information I found about the patches influencing the singleplayer part of the game are either too vague or coming from not very reliable sources which in some cases contradict each other.

tch2296

Why would you avoid downloading a patch unless there are clear and present problems with it? They have obviously been tweaking and making small adjustments to the game engine so it runs more smoothly with less glitches. There's no debate here unless the patches are totally f*cked and I haven't heard yet...

Mr.Wr0ng

Why would you avoid downloading a patch unless there are clear and present problems with it? They have obviously been tweaking and making small adjustments to the game engine so it runs more smoothly with less glitches. There's no debate here unless the patches are totally f*cked and I haven't heard yet...

Like I said, I've read some reports about the patches breaking some missions and having bad influences on the graphics (pop-ups, lower LOD distance etc.) , although the later one could just be subjective impressions.

That, combined with the fact that the patch notes mostly include changes which are aimed towards the multiplayer part of the game makes me wonder if it's worth it as I don't care for the multiplayer part anyway.

tch2296

Why would you avoid downloading a patch unless there are clear and present problems with it? They have obviously been tweaking and making small adjustments to the game engine so it runs more smoothly with less glitches. There's no debate here unless the patches are totally f*cked and I haven't heard yet...

Like I said, I've read some reports about the patches breaking some missions and having bad influences on the graphics (pop-ups, lower LOD distance etc.) , although the later one could just be subjective impressions.

That, combined with the fact that the patch notes mostly include changes which are aimed towards the multiplayer part of the game makes me wonder if it's worth it as I don't care for the multiplayer part anyway.

It is always a good idea to keep your software up to date unless there are clear issues. There are no clear issues here. There's always somebody who will try to nitpick but there's a reason they don't work for Rockstar. Patch your game.

ToolOGT92

Why would you avoid downloading a patch unless there are clear and present problems with it? They have obviously been tweaking and making small adjustments to the game engine so it runs more smoothly with less glitches. There's no debate here unless the patches are totally f*cked and I haven't heard yet...

He has a point, a ton of people did the update and now can't get any new missions on SP, including myself.

Mr.Wr0ng

Ah, so now we're in Imaginary Land where the patches have caused problems...riiiiight...kids nowadays...

There have been many instances where updates/patches actually broke more than they fixed.

That can either happen by accident or can be intentional. Breaking missions for instance can happen by accident, if you change a value here or there. As an example for the intentional one, lowering a games draw distance or its LOD distances are quite common "fixes" to improve the stability of a game, although that could easily be immersion-breaking.

As the developers are focusing on the multiplayer part of the game at the moment, I could imagine that they did the later thing to keep the framerate of GTA Online mode more stable, as it's more demanding than singleplayer. I am, however, not interrested in GTA Online, and since my game runs pretty stable, I'm afraid that the patch could do more bad than good for me.

Hooves07

The game runs smooth with the newest patch...my game also ran smooth without it. I removed the first patch as I was getting serious frame drops in traffic. The only times my game has had frame dips is during the autosave(for a second). I am on a xbox360 with the 8gb installed to HDD and play disk installed on a usb. My game saves and updates are also on the HDD.

The patches did remove lightning bolt effects and money brief cases from the ocean. I wish they would bring them back as I have collected all underwater collectibles and have no real incentive to go underwater. At least I could drive around and end my trip at the 25K briefcase for a small reward. It was also better than robing a store or armored car for pennies.

Also my LCN has bugged with the patch (I am not sure if it's a glitch or something R* did). I know I put this into another post, but my Debonair stock topped at 24% now it fluctuates between 21-22% also the Redwood stock NEVER rose. So I missed out on those huge payouts. I assume it might be the patch as every Youtube stockmarket vid says you get around 80% on Debonair and 300% with redwood.

Spuds725

If you are not interested in GTAO at this time-- as stated previously-- don't patch the game (only play when you are offline or you will be prompted to update)-- I don't know of any mission missing or no more missions problems occurring before the 1.02 patch was released and they still seem to be occuring (3 1/2 weeks later).

I ended up with a missing mission after completing the story -- The Solomon mission "Meltdown" disappeared on my game and never returned-- I was lucky in that I have been creating new save slots about every 10 missions or so and so was able to reload a save after "The Ballad of Rocco" and when Meltdown unlocked for me, I did it right away... I had to repeat about 10 or 12 missions-

The missing mission occurred for me at about the same time as the first patch--

Kent_Paul_Jnr

Patch if it address a problem you are aware of and is messing up your gaming experience etc, otherwise don't bother.

R* are not gonna patch SP anytime soon, no word on really anything since the sh*tstorm with MP, that wall that is empty of weapons shows SP is a second thought... they didnt even bother to tidy up the code b4 release.

YFV17D

If you are not interested in the multiplayer, then my advice is to finish the game and move on, patch or no patch. This game is just another example of one trying to appeal to the multiplayer crowd and providing a less enjoyable singleplayer, just like what happened with another popular shooter out there. At some point, MP takes precedent, and the single player gets neglected.

PineboxFiller

Yeah the patches have caused multiple issues with missions in single player, such as with meltdown dissapearing as he said, ballad of rocco not showing up as well, hang ten showing up after blitz play and if you do it before monkey business you will either be locked out of the strip club completely or will be attacked by the bouncers at best even after you own it, no missions becoming available after surveying the score, and the one most people encountered where the marker to start minor turbulence won't trigger the start of the mission. There have also been reports of the later paparazzi missions not showing up or working and an issue with the epsilon mission line where a couple of those missions won't show up at all either. And those are just the pretty common ones I've heard right here on the forum.

So I definitely wouldn't update until you finish the story line at least, but I would be cautious to wait to update at all until there is a fix to the problems. This causes a bit of a problem end game, as you can't finish making your fortune with the assassination missions unless you can connect to access bawsaq, which isn't possible without updating, but you can at least do the first one(second mission technically) which should net you somewhere around the 300 million mark depending on how you came out of the last heist. Should be enough to hold you off til they fix the bugs and you can update and finish the rest. Really you could just skip 3 and 4 and just do 5 and still probably have 500 or so mil which is more than enough I'm sure.

Costar

I think ppl should use their own judgement, if you want to patch, patch, if not, dont but tch2296 is right about keeping software up-to-date, it is the accepted convention. I have the latest patch, I think - 1.04. I still noticed that vehicles are disappearing. Every time I visit the grove street garage, if I pull a car from the garage, put another inside and come back outside, that car I pulled is always gone.

A van left in a space w/ the driver's door open (just today) vanished after like 2 seconds of having the vehicle out of view of the camera.

Franklin's (now modded) car, its always parked in his garage facing in. Came back from a mission, it was all-of-a-sudden parked outside, facing the street. When I got out of the car I arrived in (at the front of the driveway) and ran to get in his car, the car I had arrived in had vanished. R* still has serious problems w/ vehicles disappearing unexpectedly and unrealistically.

I remember it was an issue in past GTA games w/ vehicles disappearing at a certain distance or for being out-of-view, but as newer games in the series came out, it was supposed to be improved, where you could say, walk a distance away from your vehicle (w/out keeping it in view) and it would still be there, now it seems in "V" this problem returns?! 20+feet away, out of view, the vehicle is gone?! Something is wrong w/ that.

If there was a patch to address vehicle physics, I'm not seeing it. Vehicles that weigh (realistically) 8-10K+ lbs should NOT be pushed out of the way by vehicles weighing half that or less. An upset taxi driver managed to push my duneloader out of the way (from nearly head-on), despite holding the brake OR being on the throttle, not realistic. Its not realistic that a dump-truck would almost *bounce* off of a small 2 or 4 door passenger car upon impact. So I'd say R* has lots to do if they want to fix these issues. Overall, I still have fun in the game.